1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biometrics authentication method and biometrics authentication system to detect characteristics of the body and perform individual authentication, and in particular relates to a biometrics authentication method in which biometrics authentication functions are installed in a mobile communication device to perform biometrics authentication, and a biometrics authentication system which uses a mobile communication device.
2. Description of the Related Art
With advances in information processing technology in recent years, various illicit transactions using electronic data have become prominent. In particular, with the widespread practice of authentication of individuals using a card with a password, the relation between card data and passwords has become widely known, and there have been conspicuous instances of the illicit acquisition of card data and passwords, the damage resulting from which has been considerable.
As one method to resolve such problems with methods involving passwords, various technologies have been proposed for biometrics authentication utilizing characteristics of the human body. For example, methods employing fingerprints, the iris of the eye, facial features, blood vessel images (in the palm of the hand and the fingers), and similar have been proposed. In such biometrics authentication technologies, an individual's own biometrics characteristic data is registered on the individual's card. In order to employ biometrics authentication to enable transactions, a biometrics information reader provided in the transaction equipment which acquires biometrics information is used to acquire biometrics information for the individual, the acquired biometrics information is compared with the registered biometrics data on the individual's card, and depending on the comparison result, the transaction is permitted (see for example Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-067523).
However, when using the technology of the prior art, various procedures are necessary to issue an individual card for biometrics authentication, from application by the user to issuing of the card, so that time is required. Further, when numerous individual cards for biometrics authentication are issued at a service area, security measures must be considered, entailing additional labor. And because issuing of an individual card is a burden placed on the issuing party, costs are incurred in issuing cards, and these costs have also acted to impede widespread adoption.
Thus although biometrics authentication technology is an extremely effective measure to prevent illicit transactions, the process for securely issuing identification cards is complex, and moreover costs are incurred when issuing cards, thus impeding widespread adoption.